How to Install DOS 6.22 in VirtualBox from an ISO

By Jonah Quant

VirtualBox is a virtual machine manager created by Sun Microsystems (purchased by Oracle). Users create virtual machines using VirtualBox. On each virtual machine, you can install any operating system that runs on the x86 processor architecture. In particular, you can install DOS 6.22. DOS 6.22 is a legacy, proprietary operating system released by Microsoft in 1994. For that purpose, you can use an ISO file with the contents of the DOS 6.22 distribution CD; you will need a software license from Microsoft to acquire such an ISO file.

Step 1

Start VirtualBox by double-clicking on its desktop icon.

Step 2

Create a new virtual machine by clicking on the "New" icon on the taskbar at the top of the VirtualBox window. Click "Next," and type "DOS 6.22 Virtual Machine" into the "Name" field. Select "Other" as the operating system and "DOS" as the version, then click "Next." Click "Next" five more times to accept the wizard's default values, then click "Finish" twice (once to finalize the creation process, then again to confirm your choices).

Step 3

Click "Settings," then "Storage." Click on the line that reads "Empty" and has the icon representing a CD. Click on the other icon representing a CD that is located to the right of the "CD/DVD Drive" field, then select "Choose a virtual CD/DVD disk file..." Navigate to the location of the ISO file containing the installation image for DOS 6.22, then double-click on the ISO file. Click "OK."

Step 4

Click "Start." The new virtual machine will boot from the virtual CD whose contents are in the ISO file. The installer utility for DOS 6.22 will come up. Accept its suggestions for default values by pressing "Enter" when prompted to make a selection by the installer utility. At the end of that process, DOS 6.22 will be installed on your VirtualBox virtual machine.

References

Writer Bio